NOVEL NEXT Chapter 298:
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An Age of Chaos
In the empire, every citizen must serve.
Those who returned after years of harsh military service often reported common symptoms...
“There’s no such record.”
One of these symptoms was frequently dreaming about re-enlisting.
Surprisingly, extreme students also experienced similar phenomena in recent years.
This was thanks to the year they spent with the hero at Rosenstark.
Of course, it was a delightful and happy time, but as fulfilling as it was, it was also challenging.
“Ugh, I’ve completed all the training you ordered! I swear!”
“Again. Who told you to increase your mana in the middle?”
“Please, spare me...”
“Are you going to beg a monster like that?”
Even though Gerald knew it was a dream, his body trembled.
After being severely scolded for messing around during orientation, the hero made Gerald undergo tremendous physical training, leaving a very taxing memory.
‘...No way, how long has it been since I left the academy!’
In his dream, the hero relentlessly woke him up and made him run around the training ground.
With adamantium weights on his limbs and a track enchanted with gravity magic laid out before him, Gerald took a few steps and then gave up, lying down.
“I don’t care! It’s just a dream anyway.”
“Get up.”
“Screw getting up.”
“Get up.”
“No, I absolutely won’t.”
“GET UP!”
In response to the all-too-real voice, Gerald sprang up from his bed.
‘W-what was that?’
Outside, it was still dark.
He wasn’t in Rosenstark but in the Lotus Knight’s barracks of the Fourth Seal.
Ah, the nightmare must have been too vivid.
It qs probably because he met the “Captain” in today’s communication fantasy.
‘Ugh, I need to get back to sleep.’
Smiling warmly, Gerald reached for the blanket on the floor...
“What?”
All his comrades were standing at attention on the floor.
His heart sank with a thud.
‘I’ve seen this scene somewhere before?’
For example, at the entrance of the freshman dormitory before dawn exercise.
Gerald squinted his eyes and surveyed the surroundings.
The only light in the barracks was the dim lamp at the entrance.
Someone was standing beneath it.
“Gerald Bryce, get up.”
Before his eyes met the stranger’s, an unfamiliar voice rang out.
But why?
Gerald, without a moment to think, hurriedly jumped out of bed.
“G-Gerald Bryce! I’m up!”
Known in the world by the moniker “Lightning Spear,” the new hero Gerald stood straight, his military discipline intact, feeling like a freshman once more.
He couldn’t understand it himself.
Gerald’s eyes focused forward.
“...Ignotus?”
The man standing with folded arms in front of his comrades was someone Gerald had spent the past few weeks with at the Fourth Seal.
Although they hadn’t exchanged many words due to lack of interaction, why was he barging into the barracks in the middle of the night and waking them up?
And why were his comrades simply watching this absurd act?
‘I guess I need to step up and say something.’
Just as Gerald was about to leave the line, something familiar caught his eye.
‘What the...?’
A great sword darker and more profound than the surrounding darkness.
It represented humanity’s hope and was a symbol of terror for demons, a weapon signifying the will to save humanity.
...His stiffened mind quickly processed.
Yes, Polymorph... the ability to change one’s appearance freely.
“Hello, I am Ignotus from the Dark Division, managing the Fourth Seal.”
“Ha, nice to meet you. It’s a pseudonym, right? Hahaha.”
“...Still lively as ever.”
“Hmm, still? Have we met before?”
“Who knows.”
Reaching a conclusion, Gerald stiffened.
“...Ugh.”
The hero looked at him and chuckled.
Gerald, who had transformed into a gruff bearded giant over the past three years, still seemed like a young boy to the hero.
The other kids lined up, too.
They pretended to be serious in their stance, but their faces showed unmistakable delight and joy.
The hero observed them silently, gazing at the fruits of his labor, the seeds he had sown finally coming to fruition.
It was a moment he had awaited for a long time.
“You must have had a good time while I was away.”
“No, sir! We worked hard!”
“Well, we’ll see. I wonder if you can perform well in the approaching final battle.”
Thud—
The hero struck the ground with his black sword of hope.
“Everyone, gather at the training ground. You have three seconds. Move.”
“Move!”
The kids ran outside, feeling as if they had returned to a few years ago.
Their faces were mysterious.
While they were excited, they were also terrified of the hellish training they were about to endure after so many years.
However, once they realized that their comrades shared the same expressions, they couldn’t help but laugh.
They arrived at the training ground where Leciel and Nyhill, who had been warming up, turned to face them.
A blue-haired girl’s distinct, sharp voice greeted them from a communication orb in Nyhill’s hand.
[Hey guys~ How are you all doing?]
The kids stopped, their faces mixed with surprise and emotion.
“Wow...”
A faint smile spread across their lips for a moment, but then everyone burst into laughter simultaneously, as if on cue.
They remembered their first meeting on a clear spring day in the schoolyard—the blue sky visible through the classroom windows, the blackboard filled with the hero’s rough handwriting.
The cozy lounge where they chatted all night and the fun academy events—they all came rushing back.
Their shared memories filled the void of the past three years stained with pain and sorrow.
The same kind of smile spread across the hero’s lips as he leisurely walked from behind.
Suppressing his overwhelming emotions, he spoke.
“From now on, you will climb the gorge barehanded and without mana. The first one to reach the top wins.”
▼
The unique ability of the Black Hope: Domain is activated.
▲
* * *
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By the time they finished all the training, the sun was already high in the sky.
Winter midday weather can be fantastic at times.
The sky was a clear, transparent blue.
The sunlight was warm and gentle, and the air was cool enough to be refreshing.
The snow accumulated on the heads and bodies of the kids lying down sparkled like small diamond pieces.
“Whew...”
The hero gazed at his disciples, standing with his back to the wind blowing over the gorge.
In truth, he hadn’t completely lost touch with the kids over the past three years.
Whenever he had time, he watched over them from a distance and sometimes directly intervened or asked his comrades for help if they got involved in perilous battles.
This was why the survival rate of the Lotus Knights, who stood at the forefront of the frontlines, was exceptionally high.
But...
‘Twenty-one, twenty-two.’
The hero habitually counted the kids.
His hand, counting further, grasped at empty air.
They started with thirty-one in the extreme training group.
Cuculli and Lucas left during the process, reducing the number to twenty-nine.
When it was revealed that the hero was a doppelganger, three more left.
And in the past year, after the Lotus Knights started their activities outside the academy in earnest, four died in action.
The hero recalled their names.
‘Deindart, Aidan, Albie, Julia.’
The four graves in the national cemetery stirred in his mind.
One of the Sanctuary branches was massively ambushed by the demon army, and his four disciples sacrificed their lives to protect the refugees.
It happened while he was fighting ??? in the mental realm.
He learned about it only later when he visited the national cemetery not long ago.
Standing in front of his disciple’s tombstone, holding flowers, was an experience he could never forget.
The arm that easily swung the Black Hope felt endlessly heavy with just a few flowers.
This loss was something he had anticipated from the beginning.
His initial purpose in coming to Rosenstark was to train humanity’s prodigies into forces that could oppose the demons.
In fact, having only four deaths in three years was far fewer than he had initially expected.
It was miraculously high compared to the survival rate of a typical knight order or army.
He thought he had prepared for this.
He thought so.
The hero spoke.
“You don’t have to ascend to Avalon if you don’t want to.”
At that moment, the kids held their breath, extremely flustered.
“...Professor?”
The hero bit his lip.
“I mean it. You don't have to if you don’t want to ascend to Avalon. You can stay in the rear. I won’t hold anyone responsible.”
He knew that what he just said was not entirely rational.
If the final assault through Avalon failed, humanity would face nothing but extinction.
They might prolong their lives a bit, but death would still await them.
Moreover, giving only his disciples a choice while forcing everyone else to fight was hypocritical and cruel.
However, the hero did not want to retract his words.
??? clicked his tongue.
[You’re speaking and thinking like a true human.]
He was fine if they fought because they wanted to.
But if any of the kids were fighting solely because they were swept up by the cause he had been championing or because they couldn’t resist the oppressive atmosphere, he couldn’t bear responsibility for their deaths.
[What are you doing? Don't you need all the force you can get?]
He would have felt much less guilty if he had spent the past three years with the kids.
He had clearly stated that only those who were ready to fight should join the extreme group.
But unlike his promise, he let go of the reins midway.
He didn’t see them through to their full growth.
To suddenly return and push them into the battlefield was beyond unreasonable.
“……”
Seeing the hero’s hardened expression, the children’s faces became noticeably serious.
There was a brief murmur among them.
However, surprisingly, as if they had already anticipated what the hero would say, they quickly provided an answer.
“Professor.”
The student who answered was neither Ban, Luke, nor Leciel, which was unexpected.
“Aileen.”
The student was always last in the extreme training, and the one with the lowest chance of survival in the upcoming battle.
She started speaking softly.
“We were taught by you, who inherited the will of the former hero. Therefore, we have an obligation to save humanity.”
“...It was I who failed to fulfill my duty first. So, I can bear the remainder of your obligations for you.”
“No, Professor.”
At the beginning of the semester, Aileen would tremble just by making eye contact with the hero.
Now, she shook her head gently.
“That’s not just our duty; it’s also our right.”
Behind her, the other students nodded in agreement, not a single one dissenting.
Aileen continued with a resolute expression.
“To burn oneself and shine brightly in a dark world.”
The hero gazed at his students in silence.
“Let us act as we have been taught.”
“......”
“Captain.”
Aileen finished with a playful smile.
The children laughed along with her.
The hero couldn’t take his eyes off them.
Did he realize that the look in their eyes now was the same as his own when he used to look at Ted?
The look of someone who had found something brilliantly shining, worth pursuing for a lifetime.
Yes, there were two ways to dispel darkness.
Either become a shining light oneself or become a mirror that reflects that light.
‘... They’ve already become it.’
The hero couldn’t help but laugh heartily.
Right before him were the “heroes” who proved that the path he had walked was not wrong.
* * *
Clang!
In the basement of the Sanctuary headquarters, the “Ark.”
In the vast space, the only sound that echoed was a single, rough hammering.
Hundreds, thousands of eyes that had been moving busily were now all fixed on one place.
‘AVALON’
Noubelmag, holding up the finally completed sign, walked towards the front of the mobile fortress.
Everyone followed him in silence.
Thud!
The sign was attached.
Screws were tightened.
The sign gradually found its place at the fingertips of the old blacksmith.
As the cold touch of steel was covered with body heat, Noubelmag’s heart also pounded.
Creak—
Just before the final hammering, Noubelmag paused and looked down at his hands.
The steel fortress was born from the fire fueled by countless nights and hopes.
‘Please.’
Countless images flashed through his mind.
A ruined city.
People trembling in fear.
And the warriors fighting to protect them.
Leading them, “him.”
‘Save them all.’
Bang!
The sound of metal resonated.
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